The Duchess of Cambridge forced her
husband, Prince William, off the road in Montego Bay, Jamaica – and all
in the name of testing his driving skills on a simulator.
Kate was in fits of laughter as she created extreme
weather, pot-holes and manipulated lighting levels as William drove a
truck used to train young men at the Caribbean Military Technical Training
Institute. Automotive student Oneil Haughton joined the duchess as she sat at a
computer screen a few feet from the duke creating hazards for him to deal
with.
He said: “She was excited, she was changing his
experiences of the weather, changing the time of day – she was enjoying it. She
could make it slippery, she could do anything and she loved it, she said it was
really good.”
The institute is home to a programme for young men
needing direction in their lives who are taught to drive heavy goods
vehicles or repair cars as a way of giving them a focus.
Staff Sergeant Dave Morgan who was overseeing William’s
driving said: “He did well, he was trying and found the gears and dealt
with the critical weather. The duchess set up some strong crosswind and
caused his vehicle to turn over – he was laughing.”
The couple met students who gave demonstrations of
repairing a car and a separate engine and they joined a discussion with the
young men and their families about the course.
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‘She loved it, she said it was really good’
Major Georgette Grant McDonald, director of the institute,
said more than 3,200 young men had been trained since the programme began in
2012: “Youth and community engagement is one of the strategic lines of
effort of the Jamaican Defence Force. We see it as a means of changing the
culture of crime and violence in Jamaica. So when we empower these youths with skill, with workplace readiness, techniques and also with positive thinking
it gives them hope, it gives them an option.”
For the second day, the royal pair’s presence in
Jamaica prompted protests, with around a dozen members of Jamaica’s
Rastafarian community demanding reparations from the Royal Family.
Drumming from the protest group could be heard inside the
military compound and Ras Iyah V, a leading member of Jamaica’s Rastafari
Nyahbinghi community, said about the abolition of slavery: “In 1838 it is
said that £20 million was given to the slave masters because they were going to
lose their slaves. What has ever been given to us as a people for all these years
of slavery and colonialism – that’s why we are here.
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Earlier in the day the Cambridges also met Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness and his wife Juliet
“We are here to protest against any British monarchy
descendant coming to Jamaica without being prepared to apologize for slavery
and colonialism. We can only forgive people who acknowledge that what they did
was wrong and are willing to repair the breach of the wrongs they have
committed.”
He added: “And today the British monarchy has a lot of
African artifacts in their possession – they still bathe in the wealth that was
extracted out of the blood, sweat and tears and lives of our people and we have
never been compensated for any form of enslavement. We have never had an
apology coming from the British monarchy to say they are sorry for slavery and
colonialism.”
